The thing is, it didn’t happen.

But it is now.

Before I go on, I’d like to offer a free lesson on selling or leasing real estate: It’s not done until the check is in hand. Period. Class dismissed.

This loft was basically a revolving door last Summer and Fall, with multiple buyers, interested renters, and property investors going on and on about how much they loved the place and how they were eager to move in ASAP. One by one each of these fizzled into oblivion while I was left feeling defeated and confused.

After all, I live in a seriously kick ass loft that is not something easy to replicate anywhere else. Nonetheless, the options that were on the table were just not right.

Finally, in November I accepted an application for a tenant that wanted to sign a lease and move in early February. And here we are.

For 3 months, I’ve known that this was happening. The difference this time being that there was a signed document and security deposit. Done deal.

People kept asking me what I was going to do and where I was going to go. And I really didn’t have a solid answer for them.

My ‘go with the flow’ mentality is being put to the test right now, and in 4 days, we’ll see just how easy-going I am in actuality. I’m staying with a friend nearby that has an extra bedroom while I figure out what comes next for me. In effect, I’m going from living alone in a 1500 square foot loft that also doubles as my office to a 10′ x 10′ room in a condo with 2 other guys.

Yep, this is going to be a big transition for me. Huge, actually.

For those of you who have followed along for a while, I still have my eye on Portland, but there is some unfinished business here that needs to be sorted out before I make any big moves. Who knows what will happen this Spring and Summer though – we’ll see.

In the past week, I‘ve gone through a process of purging and discarding 2 decades worth of files, paperwork, etc. that had accumulated in well-hidden places in my office. This is the 3rd purge I’ve done on this scale, with this one actually getting to the last of the ‘stuff’ that’s been hidden away carefully in boxes, files, etc.

My carefully organized, orderly desk was piled high with papers to be shredded, while boxes of recycling and bags of previously shredded files formed a border that started feeling like a fortress over the course of 4 days.

Needless to say, this took a LOT longer than I anticipated.

It’s exciting to know that I don’t have to do this again. No more paycheck stubs from jobs I had in high school. No more tax booklets from the 1990s. No more return envelopes from utility bills I had from 5 apartments ago.

Eliminating the old crap I had been carrying around with me was a massive undertaking.

Although the volume of stuff wasn’t that great, and could easily be boxed up and moved on to the next place, I wanted to deal with it once and for all. No more hiding stuff in files and boxes. It was time for it to go.

So, in just a few days, I’ll pack up the remaining stuff that I’m taking with me and move my pared down belongings to Midtown where I’ll rest my head for a bit. I’ll share more about this process as it unfolds, but for now, I’m feeling pretty good about it.

This is a big experiment for me and the results are likely not going to be known for a few months. But I’m willing to give it a shot.

What about you? How does this compare with what you’ve experienced in your own life? Are you making any big leaps this year?

Well, not really, but one of my friends thought I was.

I was getting ready for bed and kept hearing incoming email notifications from my laptop, which happened to be open and playing music. It was unusual to get so many emails around midnight, so I went to check and see what was up.

What I saw shocked me.

Brandon Sutton was dead.

It turns out that a friend and fellow filmmaker heard through her network that Brandon Sutton had died suddenly that day. Not realizing that this was a different Brandon Sutton, she went on to Facebook to try to confirm whether it was true or not. She tagged me in the post, which caused me to get all the follow-up replies.

I’m sure I’m not the only one that’s ever been curious about how the world would react if I died, but I somehow doubt that many people get to find out while they are still alive. Well, now I know, in a way.

The outpouring of support and comfort from my friend’s network was incredible. And this is from a person that I barely know. We met through our crowd-funding efforts for our respective films and developed a bond over this shared interest. Apparently, it was enough to cause her grief when she thought I was gone.

So, what happens when you get a taste of being dead while you’re still alive?

Well, for me, it’s made me double down on my efforts to use every day that I’m alive to make a positive contribution to the world and do the work that I feel compelled to do.

Some call this legacy work, but I prefer to just call it the work.

Why compartmentalize work that makes a positive impact on society?

Why not make this work the primary focus of our lives and figure out how it can sustain us financially?

These are the questions I’ve been asking for the last few years. It’s not about what people think of me when I’m gone, as that really doesn’t interest me that much. I’m more concerned with how I live my life and what I do with the time I’m given in this physical body, right now.

A couple of people have asked me recently ‘what is your biggest fear?’ My answer to that question is that I fear I won’t do enough to reach my potential to make the world a better place with my time here on earth. To be sure, this isn’t something I obsess over, but it is definitely an area of concern.

See, I believe that with every day that goes by, there are opportunities to create positive change in the world.

Every encounter we have is an opportunity to spread joy to others.

Every moment that we spend with people we care about is a chance to show our appreciation for them.

We are all blessed with opportunities to make a difference, regardless of our specific circumstances. We get to choose what we create out of these opportunities, each and every day.

Chris Guillebeau wrote about urgency and legacy recently in his latest manifesto, The Tower. He talks about what we are each building in our lives and how the world needs us all to express our own creativity through constructing something purposeful.  I encourage you to download it and spread it to your friends and family if it resonates with you (and I seriously hope that it will).

Ironically, I’m in the process of leaving my home of 9 years (known as ‘The Tower’) and embarking on a new chapter in my journey. This is one of the biggest transitions I’ve ever gone through and it’s bringing up a lot of emotions and reflections on my life thus far. More on that next week, but for now I would love to hear your thoughts on legacy, meaning, and doing work that you feel good about.

If you were gone tomorrow, would you be proud of what you accomplished in your life? If not, what changes can you make today to move in that direction?

I wrote this (fairly long) post and included some bullet points at the end with key points, but I decided I would share those upfront in case you, dear reader, are in a hurry and just want the cliff notes.  In the event you are intrigued and want to know more, there’s plenty more below.

And by all means, I would like to hear from you on what went well in 2011 and what you are looking to improve in 2012.

Areas where things went well:

• Clarity on my life’s work – I use media to facilitate positive social and environmental change
• Exposure for my documentary work on the Gulf
• Connections with an amazing group of people at the Ian Somerhalder Foundation (ISF)
• Expanding my volunteer and activism network
• Exceeded my fundraising goal for the Hunger Walk benefiting the Atlanta Community Food Bank
• Launched a new design for my blog, thanks to Judi at New Tricks
• Health and exercise, biking a lot more
• Developing deeper connections with 2 Mastermind groups as a result of the World Domination Summit
• Work on the Keystone XL pipeline issue (finally defeated as of yesterday – yeah!)
• Teaming up with Devon, Devin, and the rest of the Kids Army to make big changes in the world
• Meeting someone special that’s adding a lot of joy to my life

Areas that need improvement in 2012:

• Better alignment between volunteering, paid work, and personal causes
• Consistent revenue from client business
• Debt repayments
• More frequent travel
• Mindfulness practices, meditation, writing, etc.
• Process improvements for turning ideas into action
• Communicating with my network on what I’m up to

Things I want to explore in 2012:

• Learning how to sail – I see myself living aboard a sailboat at some point in the next few years
• Visiting my cousin in New Zealand while she’s on a work contract there. She arrives today, so I’ve got 6 months to make that happen.
• Living with less. I move out of my loft in 12 days, so I’m going to learn about this no matter what.
• Learning more about how film combined with a groundswell in social media can bring about big social and environmental shifts.
• More public speaking, educational talks, etc.
• Deeper connection with nature, more backpacking, wilderness camping, etc.

A few stats on the blog:

• 61 new posts
• 8,621 unique visitors
• 122 Countries/Territories represented
• Average of 2.99 pages/visit
• Top referring site: Facebook
• Top organic search keyword that’s not my name: Togetherness
• Most popular post: You Are Now Under Arrest – 2,902 views

That’s the bullet point version. If you’ve made it through this and are at all curious about learning more, please do keep reading.

I rang in 2011 in northern Vermont, while on one of the best road trips of my life. My cousin Whitney and I drove up to experience winter in this beautiful state and spent several days with a friend and native of the area that took us on some incredible adventures that I’ll never forget. I learned about making maple syrup, snow shoeing, and a lot about beavers that I didn’t know before. A return trip to Vermont is definitely in order.

Not long after returning to Atlanta, a freak ice storm hit the region and shut things down for days on end. On day 3, I’d had enough, and my friend Judi was kind enough to let me use her beach house on the Gulf of Mexico for a few days. Although it was almost as cold on the beach (24 degrees Fahrenheit the first morning), there was no ice. I took the opportunity to check back in on a couple of families I had interviewed in summer 2010 for Spirit of the Gulf Coast.

With ongoing interest in the stories emerging along the coast, I attended the Oil Spill Symposium at UGA in late January, where I heard fascinating testimony from scientists, media, the US Coast Guard, NOAA, BP, and representatives from local Gulf communities. I had the opportunity to meet the legendary oceanographer Sylvia Earle, and develop a connection with Dr. Samantha Joye that would continue to deepen throughout the year.

It was during my experience at the symposium that my interest in using film to impact change intensified, and I resolved to take what I learned there and share it with the world. I spent days and nights editing the footage that I captured with my cheap Handycam I had bought in 2005. The experience of editing and sharing this content allowed me to immerse myself in the testimony from the day, and I can honestly say that I have a firm grasp on the perspectives from the various parties that were there.

I began to put together some plans to share what I had learned over the course of several months with a broader audience. The idea of sharing this information with schools and community groups bubbled up early on. Aside from giving a couple of talks at schools and producing the Spirit of the Gulf Coast exhibition at Georgia Tech, I’d never done anything like this before. Still, I felt that something was calling me to connect with a younger audience.

I had 2 big breakthroughs in March that would alter the course of my work and set me on a trajectory of fast growth and learning. The first was when my friend Beth introduced me to a kindred spirit and fellow documentarian/author/photographer Simone Lipscomb. Simone had spent the past year documenting the oil spill’s impacts on her home near Mobile Bay in lower Alabama. Our views on the world are very similar and our commitment to helping raise awareness of our inextricable connection to the environment provided the basis for a very special bonding experience along the coast in April for the 1 year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon accident.

The second big breakthrough was connecting with the Ian Somerhalder Foundation (ISF). The minute I met Kim Klingler, the ISF Executive Director, I knew it was the beginning of an awesome partnership. It was indeed, and the support ISF has given the work I’m doing could not be more appreciated. ISF has provided tremendous encouragement and promotional support to what has now become the Kids of the Gulf documentary film I’m working on. More on that in a minute.

Visiting the Gulf coast in April for the 1-year anniversary of the BP accident was another big turning point for me. Simone and I roamed the bayous of Alabama for several days before I departed for New Orleans and Grand Isle. I shot several interviews with locals whose stories were eerily similar. A theme began to emerge – there are ongoing social and economic impacts along the coast and this is affecting the kids in the area in particular. I came back from that experience more determined than ever to find a way to share this information with the world.

Through the month of May, I ramped up my efforts to sell my loft and had several showings, but no offers. I also ramped up business development and brought in a few new clients. There were a plethora of opportunities to connect with like-minded people around the city and I attended several screenings, networking events, etc.  May was a big relationship-building month.

June. Wow.  The World Domination Summit kicked things off and there was no slowing down afterward.  I had a chance to jump out of an airplane again along with 40 other people, which was pretty amazing, I must say. I’ve written at length about that whole experience, so I won’t go in to details here. But I will say that WDS was the basis for some incredible friendships and connections that have inspired me beyond description ever since.

I met Leigh and Adam in June at the premiere of The Know Better Effect here in Atlanta, and they would go on to become my partners in Kids of the Gulf later in the Summer. June was also when Devon reached out to me to ask how she could help with the oil spill in the Fall. The gears were turning, and turning fast.

July started off with the oil spill in the Yellowstone River in Montana and a tweet from Devon asking me what we could do about it. That tweet would lead to a huge effort with the ISF team to help defeat the Keystone XL pipeline. I spent a lot of time strategizing with ISF on a global youth video campaign and a Change.org petition. In early August, I started working with the Tar Sands Action/350.org team to help defeat this environmental nightmare.

Labor Day weekend, I was arrested outside the White House while peacefully demonstrating to raise awareness of Keystone XL and encourage President Obama to deny the permit. That day, I upped the ante big time, and there was suddenly a new dynamic to my writing, my social sharing, and the influence I had within my social networks. Thanks to Devon and Ian tweeting about the demonstration and arrests, people from all around the world were exposed to the Keystone XL issue. It was a day I’m very proud of, indeed.

Work on Kids of the Gulf ramped up in the Fall and we held our first fundraising campaign starting in late September. We raised over $11k in a month and had our crew at the first ever benefit event for ISF here in Atlanta, where we filmed Devon, Devin, Ian, and Kim for the film.

October was a whirlwind to say the least. I co-presented a workshop at the Carter Center called Online Story Telling For Change, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Halfway through the month, and halfway through our fundraising push for Kids of the Gulf, my friend and former business partner was killed in a motorcycle racing accident. Everything stopped that day. In the days that followed his death, I found myself doing everything I could to help his fiancé, friends, family, etc. through an excruciatingly difficult process. I led his memorial service at the Carter Center Day Chapel, which was one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to do, but it felt like something I was called to do.

Not long after that, I was called to serve on a trial jury in a civil case, which I nearly had a meltdown over while pacing frantically on a sidewalk in Downtown Atlanta. Despite me thinking it was the worst-timed catastrophe of 2011, the experience would go on to be one of the key opportunities for reflection and growth last year.

In early November, I drove to DC with 3 strangers for the Tar Sands Action demonstration, where we joined 12,000 other people to encircle the White House with a human chain to show our support for a strong NO on Keystone XL. Devon joined again and captured a lot of attention with her ‘Got Oil’ sign. We met Mark Ruffalo and Betta Broad with Water Defense that day, which started a wonderful friendship and alignment between their work and our work on Kids of the Gulf.

Later in the month, our production team conducted some outstanding interviews with subject matter experts for the film and continued to conduct outreach with potential partners, sponsors, etc. There was a lot of activity happening behind the scenes with KOTG, and we started a second fundraiser on IndieGoGo when we published our highlights reel from the ISF benefit event.

December was a month of relationship building (in more ways than one), and an expansion of my environmental activism, including becoming active in the Citizens Climate Lobby here in Atlanta. I was featured on Greg Berg’s Radio Enso show, found out I’m going to be an Uncle in the Spring, and met someone special that makes me smile each and every day. It was a great month by any measure.

On the business side of things, I did an exercise mid-December where I made lists of people who believed in me, people that believed in the work I do, people who have helped me in business in the past, and people whose work I admire. I started reaching out to many of these people in an attempt to connect and share what I was up to and asking for ways we could help each other out. 2011 was definitely a year of volunteering and sacrificing for me, and by the end of the year, I was really feeling the pinch financially.

The year wrapped up for me spending time with close friends here in Atlanta and looking ahead to a positive, productive, and energizing 2012. 2011 was a banner year and the stage is set for amazing things to happen in the weeks and months ahead. Overall, I’m very pleased with what I’ve achieved, but also know I have a lot of growing to do in 2012.

If you’ve somehow made it this far, I’m curious to hear how your year went.

What was your biggest highlight of 2011? What do you want to improve in 2012?

This year is going to be a big year for all of us. And by that, I mean basically everyone alive on the planet. Huge shifts are taking place around the world, and decisions are being made that are going to impact the course of humanity for decades to come.

I was talking to my friend Lisa Arie last week about some of the opportunities for helping others in the coming year. I mentioned some web consulting work I did for a recent client, Krull & Company that really felt awesome and how I really enjoyed helping businesses like this that are having a positive impact on the world.

‘Breathe that in.’  

That’s what Lisa said to me. When she said it, it was like a wave of relief passed through me.

When we do what we are called to do, it almost seems effortless, doesn’t it?

Breathing in the goodness and abundance that’s available to each and every one of us helps us move forward on the path to happiness and prosperity in our personal as well as our professional lives.

Getting there requires us to get really clear on what it is that makes us come alive.

I’ve worked on distilling this down to a simple message over the past year and I think I’ve finally nailed it.

I use media to create positive social and environmental change.

This is the essence of what I do, and it manifests in a few different ways – I create my own media through blog posts, videos & films, photos, social posts on FB, Twitter, G+, etc. I share and comment on media that inspires me through some of these same channels. And in my business, I help other change makers with their digital and social media strategy and execution.

Everything above makes me feel alive and fulfilled as I go about my day. Today, I’m breathing that in.

If you’re reading this, I encourage you to identify what makes you feel alive and fulfilled, and take it all in.  Breathe it in.  Take a deep breath and imagine that it’s filling up your whole body as you inhale.

How can the world be made better by what you breathe in?  Let’s all ask that question as we usher in 2012.

In 2011, I connected with more people through Twitter than in any other online medium, but I also noticed more engagement here on my blog as well. Interestingly, I felt an overall reduction in engagement on Facebook, despite the fact that it’s such a behemoth in the social world.

Google+ came into the picture in the Summer, and after some initial excitement, I have used this network very little to connect with people lately. I keep thinking that’s going to change when I ‘have more time,’ but so far it hasn’t happened.

Perhaps most notably, 2011 was a year of in-person connections more than any other year I can remember. Many (if not most) of the people that I’m actively collaborating with on new work and personal pursuits I met through events or personal meetings. Here are a few highlights:

January, 2011 – UGA Building Bridges in Crisis / Oil Spill Symposium – I had a chance to hear and meet Sylvia Earle, Samantha Joye, Joseph Montoya, and a multitude of other scientists, writers, officials, etc. that had direct involvement in the oil spill. This continues to lead to opportunities to help share the story about the oil spill and its ongoing impacts.

March 2011 – Kim Klingler – Executive Director of the IS Foundation – I met Kim during her visit to Atlanta in what was one of the best first meetings I’ve ever had. She and I hit it off immediately and began an amazing working relationship together that has helped launch Kids of the Gulf and is building toward even more great work in 2012.

April 2011 – EarthShare breakfast in Atlanta – I was honored to attend this annual benefit gathering of environmentalists, where I met some dedicated people that have mutual interest in the story of the Gulf oil spill. After that breakfast, I traveled to the Gulf to meet up with my friend Simone for the 1-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. During that visit, I gained valuable perspectives regarding the ongoing struggles throughout the region.

June 2011 – World Domination Summit in Portland – This was definitely a turning point for me. I have never been around so many amazing people all in one room before, and it was truly the most inspiring event of the year for me. 500 people from all over the world showed up and shared their spirit for game-changing life and career pursuits with each other. Several of the people I met are some of my closest friends and confidants now.

September and November 2011 – Tar Sands Action in Washington DC – After years of mainly ‘armchair activism,’ I felt compelled to participate in the DC demonstrations to deny the Keystone XL pipeline permit. Through this work, I met some incredible people who are now some of my biggest allies in my work on Kids of the Gulf. September’s demonstration was also my first in-person meeting with my buddy and overall inspiration, Devon Haas.

October 2011 – Ian Somerhalder Foundation Benefit in Atlanta – This was the first event where I had a chance to meet all the incredible people with ISF that I had been working with remotely for months. It was also my first time meeting Devin Beach in person, and seeing a lot of the Kids Army kids together was a huge inspiration.

These are some of the bigger highlights of the year in terms of in-person meetings. I thought it was relevant to share these here to show how important the connections can be in the real world as a complement to the relationships we nurture in social channels.

All of the examples above grew out of some form of connection in social or digital channels. We are in an era of unprecedented opportunity to connect with others and share information that inspires us, but let us not forget that in the end, physical connections can magnify the power of online relationships and bring about positive changes on a much larger scale.

If you’re spending a lot of time building online relationships, I encourage you to also take advantage of the opportunities to meet up with your network in real life. And if none exist in your area, why not create one yourself?  Chris Guillebeau did and now there are thousands of people waiting for a handful of available tickets to next year’s World Domination Summit.

What do you think? How do you connect with your network?

Middle photo:  Armosa Studios